Bring Our Money Home!

As we were waiting for the new Administration to take office this month, we have developed a flexible, multipronged strategy for the period ahead.

We’re pleased to announce our new three-part initiative to Bring Our Money Home. The first part is a collaboration with POWER Interfaith to inspire local congregations, institutions, and individuals to move millions of their dollars from global banks to community financial institutions. At the same time, the Coalition is working with community banks and credit unions to expand their capacity to make and track impactful local loans.

The second is a Locally Targeted Pension Investments campaign, with a goal to direct the City Pension Fund to allocate 2% of its portfolio, about $160 million, to targeted investments in Philadelphia that can address local needs in affordable housing, sustainability, and co-op development, among other sectors. After some promising initial conversations, we are reaching out to the Pension Board, the Administration, City Council members, and union leaders to build targeted and widespread support for the proposal.

The third part of this initiative, Move City Money, is still in development. We will be working with the City Treasurer and Administration to determine what subsets of public money could be moved easily into local financial institutions—including Minority Depository Institutions (MDIs)—so those funds can work on behalf of the local economy rather than being used elsewhere by big banks to maximize private profit. A part of this strategy is to encourage City Council to pass legislation increasing the number of MDIs where the City can hold money.

While none of these campaigns will lead directly to the creation of a Philadelphia Public Bank, each will move us toward our Coalition’s vision for a healthier and more democratic city economy—by mobilizing popular understanding and will, by building the capacity of local financial institutions, and by piloting local investment through the Pension Fund, which is currently valued at $7.6 billion.

We are also promoting the Philadelphia Public Financial Authority, which was passed overwhelmingly by Council in 2022 as a precursor to a public bank, as an entity that can help the Pension Fund select and manage local and socially-impactful investments and can support the credit unions, MDIs, and community banks of our local banking sector.

You can help!

• If you would like to learn more about the Pension Fund project, please contact Stan Shapiro (shapsj@comsast.net). If you have connections with City Council members, union leaders, or the new administration, consider sharing our concept paper Strenthening the Philadelphia Economy Through Targeted Local Pension Investment.

• If you would like to learn more about the Bring Our Money Home collaboration with POWER Interfaith, contact Susan Windle (susan@susanwindle.com).

• If you would like to learn more about the campaign to Move City Money, contact Peter Winslow (pjwinslow@gmail.com).

We send you many blessings for new beginnings in this brand new year.

Let’s bring our money home!